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<p>&quot;<strong>The world knows us not.</strong>&quot; 1 John 3:1<br />
        <br />
        Both the openly profane world, and the <br />
        professing world, are grossly ignorant <br />
        of the children of God. Their . . .<br />
        real character and condition, <br />
        state and standing, <br />
        joys and sorrows, <br />
        mercies and miseries,<br />
        trials and deliverances,<br />
        hopes and fears,<br />
        afflictions and consolations,<br />
        are entirely hidden from their eyes.<br />
        <br />
        The world knows nothing of the motives and <br />
        feelings which guide and actuate the children<br />
        of God. <strong>It views them as a set of gloomy, <br />
          morose, melancholy beings</strong>, whose tempers <br />
        are soured by false and exaggerated views of <br />
        religion—who have pored over the thoughts of <br />
        hell and heaven until some have frightened <br />
        themselves into despair, and others have puffed <br />
        up their vain minds with an imaginary conceit of <br />
        their being especial favorites of the Almighty. <br />
        &quot;They are really,&quot; it says, &quot;no better than other <br />
        folks, if so good. But they have such contracted <br />
        minds—are so obstinate and bigoted with their <br />
        poor, narrow, prejudiced views—that wherever <br />
        they come they bring disturbance and confusion.&quot; <br />
        <br />
        <strong>But why this harsh judgment? </strong><br />
        <br />
        Because the world knows nothing of the spiritual<br />
        feelings which actuate the child of grace, making <br />
        him act so differently from the world which thus <br />
        condemns him.<br />
        <br />
        It cannot understand our sight and sense of the <br />
        exceeding sinfulness of sin—and that is the reason<br />
        why we will not run riot with them in the same <br />
        course of ungodliness. <br />
        <br />
        It does not know with what a solemn weight eternal <br />
        things rest upon our minds—and that that is the cause <br />
        why we cannot join with them in pursuing so eagerly <br />
        the things of the world, and living for time as they <br />
        do—instead of living for eternity. <br />
        <br />
        Being unable to enter into the spiritual motives and <br />
        gracious feelings which actuate a living soul, and the <br />
        movements of divine life continually stirring in a <br />
        Christian breast, they naturally judge us from their <br />
        own point of view, and condemn what they cannot <br />
        understand.<br />
        <br />
        You may place a <strong>horse </strong>and a <strong>man </strong>upon the same<br />
        hill—while the man would be looking at the woods <br />
        and fields and streams—the horse would be feeding <br />
        upon the grass at his feet. The horse, if it could <br />
        reason, would say, &quot;What a fool my master is! How<br />
        he is staring and gaping about! Why does he not sit <br />
        down and open his basket of provisions—for I know <br />
        he has it with him, for I carried it—and feed as I do?&quot; <br />
        <br />
        So the worldling says, &quot;<strong>Those poor stupid people</strong>, <br />
        how they are spending their time in going to chapel, <br />
        and reading the Bible in their gloomy, melancholy way. <br />
        Religion is all very well—and we ought all to be religious <br />
        before we die—but they make so much of it. Why don't <br />
        they enjoy more of life? Why don't they amuse themselves <br />
        more with its innocent, harmless pleasures—be more gay, <br />
        cheerful, and sociable, and take more interest in those <br />
        things which so interest us?&quot; <br />
        <br />
        The reason why the world thus wonders at us is <br />
        because it knows us not, and therefore <strong>cannot <br />
          understand that we have . . .</strong><br />
        sublimer feelings,<br />
        nobler pleasures, and<br />
        more substantial delights,<br />
        than ever entered the soul of a worldling!<br />
        <br />
        Christian! the more you are conformed to the image <br />
        of Christ—the more separated you are from the world, <br />
        the less will it understand you. If we kept closer to the <br />
        Lord and walked more in holy obedience to the precepts <br />
        of the gospel, we would be <strong>more misunderstood </strong>than <br />
        even we now are! It is our worldly conformity that <br />
        makes the world understand many of our movements <br />
        and actions so well.<br />
        <br />
        But if our movements were more according to the mind of <br />
        Christ—if we walked more as the Lord walked when here <br />
        below—we would leave the world in greater ignorance of <br />
        us than we leave it now—for the hidden springs of our life <br />
        would be more out of its sight, our testimony against it <br />
        more decided, and our separation from it more complete.
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